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Nuc Swarmed!

I grafted cells for some 5 frame nucs on April 5. One of my nucs swarmed today. It was on day 28 of its cycle. I caught it and put it in another nuc box.
I found the nuc box it swarmed from. There were very few bees left in it, lots of pollen and honey. Missing were any eggs, larvae
or sealed brood except two sealed queen cells! My question is how and why did they swarm?? And if you are suppose to stay out of the
nucs until day 34 (per queen rearing calendar) how do you keep the nuc from filling up the box with pollen and honey and then swarming??

Re: Nuc Swarmed!

You can (at least I do) ck the outer frames of a nuc, just don't get into the middle frames. If you force the virgin to fly before she has taken her orientation flight, she might not make it back. Maybe you started the nuc w/ to much bees and brood? In either case I've switched out full frames before w/o a problem.

Re: Nuc Swarmed!

Yeah, I think you are correct about making it up too strong.
But what I don't understand is where did they get those eggs for the queen cells?
I started the nuc with a queen cell. That queen should only be on day 28. She would have
had to emerge, get mated, lay the 2 eggs, then swarm when they got capped..
Strange for sure.

Re: Nuc Swarmed!

You maybe missed the eggs, a master bk that I hang w/ says the bees will make every effort to hang onto their own genes, the girls probably wanted a couple more. Maybe they're empty & they built em out of flustration, they do what they want, sometimes it's like herding cats LOL

Re: Nuc Swarmed!

>Thanks all but how do you stop absconding?

Absconding is about conditions like too small, too large, too many pests, too much messing with the hive etc. If you saw it coming, a frame of open brood would probably have done it. A bigger box might have done it....

Re: Nuc Swarmed!

After thinking about this entire situation I agree Mike is 100% correct for absconding. Mike, can I assume if the nuc absconded that they have a queen? It is time to check the colony to see if
they are queenright or not. But I don't want to disturb them so soon after absconding. Would they abscond without a queen?
If they don't have a queen I will need to supply them with one.

Re: Nuc Swarmed!

The bees didnt read that part of the calendar.. so they left looking for better surrooundings. Too congested. Never follow any thing to the letter that Books say. Remember bees cant read, they do what they want to.